Friday, August 31, 2012

I am not as obsessed as others, but I do like a good nail polish color and I do like variety. I have a hard time just doing the same color over and over. All in all, it is still much cheaper to buy a new color when I am feeling the itch than to go get a manicure.

Well, if you'll notice while you are out and about, the fall lines have come out. They are all so tempting. Some are similar to a former color, but just a tiny bit different. I really love the Essie nail polish colors. They all just speak to me. I haven't really seen many that I wouldn't love to own. They also go on so thinly that it is much easier to get them all the way dry without smudges. So... my recent aquisition and what I am currently wearing.

It is called "pilates hotttie". It is actually from the yogaga collection. I don't make up the names.

I took a picture of my nails but the color didn't come out right. This is a much more accurate reflection of the color actually on my nails. I have been a sucker for the non-shimmery grays and taupes lately. Really can't get enough. But there is a lovely dark burgundy color in the fall line.

This summer I was given a little bit of crap about wearing a turquoise color on my nails. She thought it was ugly. It looked great on the toes though. Look at this! I have been redeemed! That is my exact same color. The same color that got me started on the whole essie nail polish line, to be exact.

And as a side note, I am in need of dress shoes to go with my dress clothes that I will have to wear to work. Weird that cheap dress shoes do fall apart after 10 years especially when the last 4 they have spent mostly hanging in a closet. So I have seen these shoes at Target for a while and wanted them, but didn't need them. Now they are on clearance and all sold out! It is a tragedy if minor proportions. So if you see them in a 6.5, buy them like you have found a great prize, rejoice in your win and give them to m.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I think we have had such a slow paced summer that it has been a real shock to the system to get back into the swing of things. We haven't even started everything yet! Ava has decided that she loves school. She had to get her root canal yesterday and I had to pick her up early from school. She was upset that she didn't get to stay the whole day. She doesn't even fight me quite as much as she used to with getting out the door.

Monday night we had curriculum night for Ava. Her teacher seems really excited about this year. It is clear that she really is committed to her job and loves her students. Tuesday night we split up. Justin took Ava to his Kidstown meeting (Sunday school program at church) and I took Rhys to the preschool orientation. He was one of two kids there but he did ok. He found out his teacher is Mrs. G. We are going to meet her and pick up his bags tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile I have been filling up my calendar with things that I need to get done for work. I have two overnights left at my old job and then training the week of the 10th for my new job. I am not working that many more hours than I have been, in fact less than I was just a couple months ago. It is just split up so differently that it seems like a lot more. I was wondering what I was going to do about a meeting I had during the day once a month. It is only an hour so I didn't want to have to drive far. A friend from church messaged me, not an hour later after telling Justin I had to figure something out, asking if we could trade babysitting services. I will be watching her son on Wednesday mornings and she will watch Rhys during my meetings.

As you know, I struggled with Ava's Girl Scout leader and troop. I found out today that her current troop is being disbanded and she is getting transferred to a new troop with a new leader. The meeting times work out much better for our schedule and hopefully she will actually get to do some activities. I am pretty sure this means I don't need to be a co-leader, but honestly that is fine.

On to dinner making and maybe some dishes. Only three hours until bedtime and I am ready.

Monday, August 27, 2012

I finished a blanket today. I am making it for a friend's baby who is coming in about a month. I need to still block it and sew in the ends. I then have to get around to actually mail it. I made this blanket out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I love the softness and drape. I am excited to see how it turns out after blocking it. All the little bumps should be flattened out with the blocking.

I already have the next project ready to go. I am going to make a few more hats too here and there. Most of my upcoming projects are gifts for people who actually read this thing so I am going to have to keep them to myself for now. I have decide that it has to be a great pattern and a great yarn to really make me finish thing things. It has to be enjoyable to to work with and see the pattern emerge. I am sure this isn't really that surprising to anyone. In fact, it is pretty much common sense. I just always try to do without one or the other and it doesn't really work out. Anyway, just wanted to post about this project before I forgot and got distracted with the next one!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

It is official. I am getting a new job. No really, I have a new job. It just doesn't start for about 4 weeks. I am moving on up. I have worked in the same position as a case manager in the emergency domestic violence shelter at my agency for the last 5 years. I am now leaving that program (mostly, I am still going to be emergency back up) and moving over to the transitional housing program and will be the program coordinator. It is still part time. I pretty much get to make my own schedule and do some work from home. The program is changing formats in January, but until then I will be working at the office while Rhys and Ava are in school school, a couple evenings a week, and Saturday mornings. The job is kind of hard to describe. I will still be doing case management with the clients in the program, managing the program's budget, and writing reports required for the grant.It is a lot more responsibility but I am really looking forward to it.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Today was Ava's first day of 1st grade. It went as smoothly as it possibly could. Justin stayed home to take her to school for her first day. I am sure he knows that our normal mornings aren't all sunshine and smiles like this morning was. It included waking up happy, no crying during getting her hair done and breakfast of choice for the first day of school. Justin and I dropped Ava off at 8:15. We walked her into her classroom, saw her to her desk, and left. She didn't even look back at us.

Rhys was sad. He didn't know what to do with himself. We went grocery shopping right after we dropped her off. We were done by 9:30 and he was already talking about it being time to pick her up. Around 11, he wouldn't agree to anything because he wanted to wait for Ava. We went to the park after lunch and he actually walked around just kicking the mulch. Funny thing was after I woke him up from his nap to go pick Ava up, he didn't want to get her.

Ava still hasn't figured out how to open the van door from the outside. Pick up time makes me really miss not having those super cool remote doors. She gets in the car and says, "Guess what I found out today. School is fun!" She said the best part of the day was hot lunch. She didn't have "hot lunch" but now that is something she most strongly desires. You order hot lunch a month ahead of time in her school, so she is a little mad that she doesn't even have the option until October.

And now for the world record. Ava had homework. She had to fill in a worksheet with the numbers 1-100. We got home at 3:50, emptied her backpack, had a couple cookies, (I made her chocolate chip cookies for her first day.) and started homework. We had talked about it ahead of time that it would be best to do homework when she gets home and then she can just have her evening free. It took her an hour and 40 minutes!!!!!!!!!!! There were tears. There were two broken pencils. There was the kicking of Rhys. Rhys was a distraction. Ava didn't want to try. I sat at the table with her the whole time to keep reminding her to keep going. Remember this moment when I consider homeschooling.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

I was just checking my blog feeder and I thought to myself that I should probably post something. What? I have no idea. I want to write about Ava's birthday, but the pictures are all still on my phone and I don't know where that is at the moment. (I don't remember the last time I used a camera, primarily because there is sand in the shutter of our camera so it doesn't really focus.) So that post will just have to wait for another time.

Two week days left of summer vacation for Ava. We are trying to have some fun. Today I took the kids to their favorite restaurant, Noodles and Co. for lunch and then we went to go see The Odd Life of Timothy Green. They had been watching trailers on the Disney app on the roku for weeks. They had no idea what we were going to be seeing. They didn't even know what we were going to see when I bought the tickets. I don't know what they were looking at but they definitely weren't paying attention to what I was saying. Ava loved it. Rhys thought parts were scary. I don't remember him being scared at all. I just think it was a bit over his head. He wiggled a lot. Mostly on my lap.

I am so excited about the first day of school. I always loved starting the new school year. I liked all my new school supplies. Maybe that is why I love the movie You've Got Mail. I can completely relate to the line about bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils. I would go back to school just so I could buy new school supplies. I know that just as when I was in school, I will get tired of it quickly. I am soon going to be tired of getting up every morning, waking kids up, arguing with them to brush their teeth, and get out the door on time. I am probably going to get tired really quickly of arguing with Ava over doing her homework. I know all this, but I am still excited about it starting again. I am seriously looking forward to the structure her school schedule brings to my day. I feel energized, like I will be more productive somehow. I doubt it will happen for long, but one can hope. I will imagine being busy around the house, fixing stuff, cleaning things, organizing, purging and maybe even working out a bit. It will be just like when I used to imagine that I would read every page assigned to me and always study and be completely dedicated to my school work. Me and my school year resolutions.

Monday, August 13, 2012

We are three weeks into my new work schedule. I am still definitely working. I am sometimes going to be working more than before, sometimes less. I just have a different schedule. It is lovely. I am at home most evenings now during the week. I feel definite pressure to make the most of this time. I am not sure what all that means. I just feel more motivated to get stuff done. For example: this morning I got out of bed and started cleaning Ava's room. I didn't even go downstairs first. I had been half cleaning it all summer, to try to assist her in the overall cleaning of her room. I just decided it would never really happen unless I did it all the way first and then she just had to maintain it. Either way, it didn't even take an hour and it looks so much better. The kid has a ton of big stuff. She has a huge room and all the walls are occupied. I wonder what our house would look like if my mind didn't think I had to line the walls with things and ventured out into the room with stuff. Rhys' room is next on my attack list. Once one space is all the way clean I really like to make the rest of the house match. Believe it or not, I like having a clean house. I like it to be neat and smell nice. I just hate being the person to make that happen.

School starts in a week. I have some last minute school supplies left to get and I need to label everything. We drop it all off on Thursday, so I probably do actually need to go to the store soon. I also have to strategically plan my trip to Costco for when I get paid on Friday. I have to pack Ava a lunch everyday. On pinterest there was a woman who made a different lunch and took pictures of it everyday and then posted them to give you ideas. I don't know why this standard has even been suggested. I don't think Ava likes that many things. Also, I am not going to do it. I am just not! Ava will be lucky if she gets something different every other day. I have a feeling she will have close to the same thing Monday through Friday and I really don't think she is going to complain about it. I just don't see what she will really eat that will make the effort of changing it up worth it. Do I get a thermos so I can send reheated mac and cheese? Really, how much is there really to put in lunches?

With school starting I am definitely going to be home a lot more during the week. I am sure that will mean I come up with more projects. It is hard to have playdates with kids. Maybe it is time for Rhys to start going on playdates without Ava. I am going to have to start figuring that out. Maybe seek out his 3 year old buddies and see what they will be doing in the fall. It is going to be so different having only one child during the day again.

In other news, I am only 9 books behind now in my reading goal. I have a bunch of books on hold with the library but meanwhile I am kind of at a stand still. I think I could catch up if I just found some good books that suck me in. I was trying to read The White Queen. I had read other books by the same author but it was killing me. Probably because they were killing everybody in the book. I might just have to go back to it out of boredom.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

People have been suggesting that I sell some things I make on Etsy for a while now. I have never really been up for the challenge. I guess I have thought they aren't good enough, original enough, something like that. I also worried about getting more orders than I could fulfill. The opposite worry of my first worries, which is odd. But fears aren't always logical. So what is the worst thing that could happen? I try and nobody buys anything. Then what? I have things to give away as gifts.

I have decided to go ahead an open up an Etsy store. I have two hats that are finished and ready to go. I even have a willing and ready baby to model them and her mom is going to take pictures. (Thanks Rachel for having a cute little baby at the exact same time I decide to do this!) I don't think cell phone pictures help the sales at all. So we are going to visit today and bring some banana bread, the blanket I made for Keira Q., and take some pictures of my hats.

The only debate...what do I call my etsy shop? I honestly have no idea.